Ozzie Albies committed a crucial error in the eighth, booting a double play ball that allowed the eventual winning run to score. Then, in the ninth, he made a crucial out that was part of the reason the Braves could not complete their rally, and ending up dropping their third straight game by a 3-2 score. Since the Phillies won in walkoff fashion at about the exact same time that the Braves lost this game, their division lead is now down to two games.
This game was largely an exercise in frustration for the Braves and their fans. Pittsburgh starter Jameson Taillon basically laughed his way through Atlanta’s lineup his first two turns through the order, allowing just two hits, a walk, and a hit batsman over his first five innings. Before most of that, though, the game featured an eventful first. Ronald Acuña Jr. nearly smashed another leadoff homer, but it died on the warning track. Ender Inciarte then singled, but the inning ended when he was gunned down as part of a strikeout-caught stealing double play. In the bottom of the inning, Anibal Sanchez allowed a leadoff slow roller hit, but the first out came when the runner was thrown out trying to steal second. After a one-out walk, the inning ended when Ender Inciarte made a highlight reel jumping catch in right-center against the wall.
But, Sanchez’ luck did not hold as well following that, as he allowed a run in the second after a leadoff double and a dribbler up the middle off the bat of Elias Diaz that went for an RBI single. Sanchez then bore down and struck out the next three batters to end the inning, but the Braves were in a hole early.
The middle innings were quiet, as Sanchez retired every batter he faced for the next three frames. The Braves started the top of the fourth with a strange leadoff double, as Ender Inciarte first prompted an injury delay by fouling a ball off his foot, and then stroked a hustle double on a groundball up the middle. Unfortunately, Inciarte was stranded right there as the next three hitters made outs.
Sanchez got into further trouble in the sixth in his third turn through the lineup. Starling Marte hit a leadoff single, and Josh Bell reached base when Freddie Freeman fielded his grounder and threw high to second, resulting in an error and runners on first and second with none out. After getting a fly out, Sanchez allowed a weak pop behind the second base bag off the bat of David Freese, scoring Pittsburgh’s second run. He was then pulled in favor of Sam Freeman, who elicited a line drive to Albies at second that ended up doubling up Freese at first.
Taillon’s third time through the order did not prove as smooth as his first two. Ronald Acuña Jr. lofted a ball to right field for a towering home run, and the Braves were on the board. After Luke Jackson worked a scoreless seventh, Johan Camargo deposited the first Taillon pitch in the bottom of the inning into the stands in front of the Chop House, knotting the game at two. The Braves then got a single from Kurt Suzuki, but were unable to take the lead as Taillon bounced back to retire the next three batters.
That tie game did not last long, just like last night. Brad Brach came on to face a smorgasbord of lefties for some reason, despite his 4.37 FIP and 5.10 xFIP against them this season. That went about as predictably poorly as could be expected, but in a surreal manner. First, Brach walked left-handed pinch-hitter Adam Frazier. He then elicited a first pitch grounder right to Albies off the bat of Starling Marte, but the ball bounced off Albies rather than being snagged by his glove, putting runners on first and second with none out. Josh Bell (a switch-hitter) drilled a liner into center that Inciarte flagged down, but at the expense of letting Frazier tag up and take third. Yet another lefty, Gregory Polanco, came to bat, and with a 1-2 count, Brach did not throw a high fastball quite high enough: Polanco leveled off on it and lined it into center to score the go-ahead run. After a double steal, Brach got a groundout from the righty-hitting David Freese, and was pulled in favor of Jesse Biddle when lefty-hitting Corey Dickerson came up. Biddle retired Dickerson and the three batters he faced in the top of the ninth, but it didn’t matter: the Braves were trailing once again.
In the bottom of the eighth, Keone Kela made short work of the Braves in a 1-2-3 inning with two strikeouts. In the ninth, the Braves tried to stage a one-out rally against Felipe Vazquez, as Johan Camargo hit a ball up the middle for a single, and Kurt Suzuki followed that with a grounder through the right side. That brought up Albies with a chance for redemption, but Albies did not seize it. His weak grounder to third was the inning’s second out. Vazquez then struck out Dansby Swanson on four pitches, and so went the Braves.
The Braves lost their third straight game tonight, and are currently in a really strange stretch where they haven’t alternated two wins and a loss or two losses and a win since August 10. Since then, they have a five-game winning streak, a four-game losing streak, a four-game winning streak, two wins followed by two losses, and now three consecutive losses. They enter September with a .567 winning percentage and a two-game lead in the division, and it’ll be up to them to avoid making the kinds of mistakes they made tonight if they want to reach the postseason. Or the Phillies could just lose a lot. Either one.